Lance Armstrong to feature in CNN special on cancer

Lance Armstrong to feature in CNN special on cancer

CNN

MUMBAI: CNN will air a special Saving Your Life which will focus on cancer. CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Tour de France champion and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong join forces to discuss the killer disease that touches everyone in some way.

Also joining Saving Your Life are cancer experts, Dr. Harold Freeman, associate director of the US National Cancer Institute and medical director of the Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care and Prevention, and Dr. Jim Hotz, an expert on rural health care and cancer whose story inspired the movie Doc Hollywood. The panel also features dedicated individuals who devote their time to educate their community in better understanding cancer.

The special airs on 13 January 2007 at 12:30 pm and 8:30 pm, 14 January at 12:30 pm. It also includes the following segments:

•A discussion with Armstrong, Freeman and cancer survivor and magazine editor Clifton Leaf in which they conclude that the lives of hundreds of thousands cancer victims could be saved through the application of current knowledge about cancer;

•A profile of Baker and Terrell Counties in southwest Georgia, which hold some of the highest cancer rates and colon cancer death rates in the nation;

•A profile of a young African-American woman with breast cancer and of Freeman, who designed a 'navigator' system to help Harlem women with breast cancer have a better chance of survival;

•A profile of a young Colorado boy with a rare bone cancer and a look at the issues of childhood cancers and orphan drugs;

•A profile of a man who thought he had beaten cancer only to learn months later the cancer had spread. Gupta, Armstrong and Leaf examine the relative lack of funding for metastatic cancer, the most deadly form of the disease;

•A look at Armstrong's MRI images revealing the two large tumors that almost killed the man now synonymous with cancer survival.

Gupta says, "This is an exclusive opportunity to hear from some of the most distinguished members of the medical community about their advice on how to avoid and beat cancer. It is also a testament to those survivors who can offer firsthand advice that can save lives."